CONFERENCES

​Two global conferences organized in 2014 and 2015 gathered researchers, funders, NGOs, philanthropists and entrepreneurs interested in open source approaches to drug discovery. These conferences helped initiate the establishment of the Open Source Pharma Foundation. A third conference will be organized in Paris in February 2019.​

This meeting was the sequel to the first global Open Source Pharma (OSP) conference that took place at the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center, Lake Como, Italy in 2014. Sponsors and partners include Marburg University, McGill University, OSDD, and the Tata Trusts.

A conceptual framework and mission statement were created in Bellagio, and OSP’s campaign of “Medicine for All” reached over 300K people. However, there have been only a handful of concrete new initiatives, and we must now work to bring a sustainable OSP initiative into being through specific, targeted projects that can demonstrate this new way.

​Location: Castle Rauischholzhausen, Germany. First mentioned in 750 AD, the site was sold in 1873 to German diplomat and industrialist Ferdinand von Stumm, who competed with his brothers to build the most beautiful castle.

Following the conference in Germany, Andy Updegrove offered his take on Open Source Pharma and how this conference worked towards "saving the millions of lives a year that are lost either to so called 'neglected diseases', or because those stricken cannot possibly afford the price of the drugs that could provide a cure." Click the button above to read his full article about the conference.

CONFERENCE PURPOSELaunch concrete initiatives to discover, develop, and commercialize medicines for the most pressing needs in our society through the use of open and inclusive research models.

CONFERENCE OBJECTIVESForge: The first-ever global conference on open source pharma. Many of the players have never met. Create ties, form community, and forge alliances.

Learn: What does open source pharma mean? How does it relate to current, alternative pharma approaches? What is happening in the open source pharma field, and what is its applicability/potential at each stage of the pipeline?

Act: Explore and develop concrete projects and paths forward:

a global online research platform

a global innovation prize

map and assemble end-to-end pipeline/partners for the world’s first “open source” drug